Sunday, 14 June 2015

Rather than the usual green trees that you get on your wargames table I fancied something with a bit more colour and so asked Ralph Spencer to make me some Autumn trees with reds, golds and browns. He has done an excellent job as you can see and is available for commissions at ralphspencer1@hotmail.com
I have been on the lookout for some suitable carpet tiles for making fields and yesterday I found a doormat in Pound land (Sorry, the name of the shop was Pound Stretcher)that they sell for the bargain price of 49p. It is approx. 13 x 23 inches in size, brown in colour, felt backed, thin and has a ribbed effect that would make a suitable ploughed field.

UPDATE: The name of the shop is POUND STRETCHER, not POUND LAND. The carpet is listed as Value Indoor Mat 40cm x 60cm cost 49p. I went and bought another two today.

I cut the mat into two smaller fields and cut a few wiggly lines as I think this looks more realistic than perfectly square/oblong fields.

I did consider painting the mat brown but decided to leave it its original colour as I was going to be covering it in dried tea anyway. For this, I brushed PVA glue onto the mat and then using a sieve, spread used tea all over it. (The tea is used tea from the teapot which has been dried out)

I left this to dry overnight and then this morning shook all the excess off, then gave it a light coating of brown spray (as I think I put the PVA on a little too thick as there was a hint of the white glue still showing through) and then spray varnish to hold the remaining tea in place. This has given the mat a good texture and helped to make it look more like a muddy ploughed field with an aroma of tea.

The good thing with using flexible tiles rather than fixing to a base, (although I do like the look of fields fixed to a base) is that you can then place them so they follow the contours of your terrain.

I have set the fields up with some walling to show it off at its best along with some of my new Autumn trees and a couple of 28mm figures in their appropriate camo for the season, to give you an idea of scale.

About Me

Hi, my name is Pat and I live in the United Kingdom with my wife and son. I have a growing collection of unpainted plastic and lead toy soldiers which I am fighting a losing battle with as the pile keeps growing. Hope you enjoy this blog,
Pat.